state that could help decide who takes the white house. a new usa today poll shows romney is leading in the swing states. among likely voters he's got a 51% and president obama is down at 46%. 3% remain undecided. in the nonswing states in washington d.c. the race is a bit tighter, romney 49%, obama 47% and joining us now via the telephone to talk about this new polling and the numbers that have to be troubling for the obama campaign, susan page, usa today washington bureau chief. welcome. first is this still all about the president's poor showing in last week's debate? >> it's about, derek, his poor showing and romney's good one. you know, i think that pollsters on both sides of the political aisle tell us that that prompted some voters who were not friendly to romney to take a second look at him and that includes particularly some women voters. in this new swings states poll we have romney and obama even among women in the swing states

monday those most likely to vote and that's a real change from before. >> yeah. that's a big deal because romney is still running ahead when it comes to men. the president was counting on women to make up the difference. now they are not, at least according to these numbers. what changed for them, do you think? >> we know that women tune in later to politics. women are inclined to tune in later to politics and they are more open to changing their minds, more persuadable later in the day of campaigns because of that reason, because they haven't been focused on the campaign from the start. maybe they're focused on other things like doing their jobs and raising their kids. so it means that they are the quintessential swing voters at end of a campaign like this. it's pretty close. those women voters will really matter and the group of voters i think they're the most focused on are blue collar women, women whose families have been hit hard by this long economic downturn and i think the state of the economy is a big factor in their vote.

>> the other interesting fact that pops up when comparing registered with likely voters, president obama is up by a couple points among registered voters. he's down when you count those most likely to vote. how does somebody move to being registered to likely and why is there the difference? >> yesterday in the gallup poll we asked seven questions used to determine if you're a likely voter which include things like do you know where to go to vote? do you plan to vote? how enthusiastic are you about the election? we fine republicans are more enthusiastic about this election than democrats and that means more republicans move through that likely voter screen. that's one reason president obama is down two point among registered voters in the swing states, up four points among likely voters. >> susan page, thank you for your time. i know you'll be heading off tomorrow to the debate. we look forward to your report. those numbers are really interesting and they have people like virginia democrat lizy shea hitting the streets

working to get president obama reelected one door at a time. she and the other campaign volunteers have already registered more than 120,000 new virginia voters. four years ago the obama campaign saw an 83% voter turnout in arlington and volunteers are praying for a repeat. >> virginia went blue. the demography is good for going blue again. >> when president obama won virgin in '08, it was the first time in 44 years voters there backed the democrat. volunteers at this northern virginia phone bank are working to put the state back in the gop column. >> we got our clocks cleaned in virginia four years ago. republicans really didn't put up much of a fight. they took virginia for granted. that's not happening now. >> this campaign season romney volunteers are hitting the phones and knocking on doors and reached out to 4.5 million voter contacts. since june romney has made 18 campaign stops in virginia and

the president chose a virginia resort to practice for tuesday's debate. if you live in virginia, the deadline to register to vote is tomorrow. you can register in person at election board headquarters in you're in washington d.c. for more info on voter registration, get to our website www.wusa9.com. look under our campaign 2012 tab. first lady michelle obama has already voted. look at this picture. she seems pretty happy. she cast her illinois absentee ballot via the mail this morning. the president will vote in chicago next thursday. right now president obama is focused on tomorrow night's debate. you can watch this debate right here on channel 9 at 9:00 and on our website, www.wusa9.com. then join us at 11:00 as we are joined by the fact checkers from usa today. two veteran police officers seen in the caught on tape beating of a university of maryland student after a duke

basketball game in 2010 went on trial today. prince george's county officers reginald baker and james harrison are accused of assault and misconduct, but their fense lawyers say today it was the student john mckenna who the threat. scott broom with the latest from upper marlboro. >> reporter: the videotape in this case is the key evidence and the jury saw it within two minutes of the start of the trial. university of maryland student john mckenna slammed against a concrete wall on knox road in college park by riot police, then beaten with batons testifying in court today he doesn't remember the incident. the prosecutor today called all this an abuse of power and a violation of trust, but lawyers for the police officers said mckenna was targeted under a zero tolerance order that night against anyone leading what they called a riot. >> he wasn't leading it whatsoever. >> reporter: outside court a witness nathan cole said he tookly own cell phone video of the incident -- took his own

cell phone video of the incident and remained stunned two years later. >> i lost days of sleep over it. i really did. it really bothered me. >> reporter: cole said mckenna was fist pumping and skipping on the sidewalk in a goofy display of celebration and on a cell phone video cole took jurors heard mckenna singing the notre dame fight song. >> even though they tried to say he was doing in and that could be threatening, any reasonable person can tell that's absolutely ridiculous. >> reporter: but defense lawyer arguably called mckenna yippy skippy arguing the student approached police horses with clenched fists and said the video shows mckenna was an aggressive agitator. many of the blows were struck to force mckenna to show his hands after being taken down in a display of by the books police tactics brennan said. despite the celebrating in the streets a friend of mckenna's testified they had no idea

police were out there until they literally ran into them. scott broom, 9 news now. a former army ranger will spend the next 28 years behind bars for killing a fellow soldier. today gary smith was sentenced for the murder of his roommate michael mcqueen who was found shot to death in 2006 after the two spent the night smoking marijuana, drinking and playing pool. they had served together in afghanistan. sky 9 out over lake meadwood in rockwood today where park users are warned to avoid any contact at all with the water and to keep their pet as way from it as well because of an outbreak of toxic blue green algae. natural research experts say a similar outbreak occurred in 2009 and say the algae problem at the nearby lake frank is there but not nearly so serious as lake meadwood's. we're looking at showers. the cold front is pushing through right now and even a couple thunderstorms. we're tracking those south of town. let's start with a wide view of

the doppler radar. you can see the heaviest activity south down into southern fairfax county, but now pushing into charles county. as we go across the river there's light activity into montgomery county, fairfax and loudoun, but this is the stuff we're really watching in the next 30 minutes. it's not quite as heavy as it was, but pretty good rains headed towards stafford, go across quantico shortly. this heavy activity has moved through between dale city and also alexandria and old town, but still pretty heavy activity across the river headed for la plata coming down 301. it's going to be a slow go. remember, when your windshield wipers are on, your headlights have to be on. we'll come back, talk about how cold it's going to get behind the frontal boundary and when these showers finally clear out. still ahead some crazy scary video, a stunt goes all wrong and it's all caught on camera. >> plus we've got an update on that 14-year-old girl sh by the taliban because she was

trying to encourage young girls to get their education.

a young pakistani girl shot in the head by the taliban is in england tonight where she's receiving medical treatment. 14-year-old malala yousufzai will get specialized care to help recover from the brutal taliban attack she managed to survive last week. a gunman fired on malala hitting her in the head as she rode home on the school bus. the taliban targeted the teen for promoting the ed case of girls -- education of girls. pakistani doctors say damaged bones in her skull will need to be repaired and replaced. >> we expect she will be in hospital some time, weeks, if not months. >> doctors said she was able to move her hands and legs a few

days ago but will need intensive rehabilitation. the captain accused of running a cruise ship into a reef causing it to capsize information court today. more than 1,000 survivors, their relatives and lawyers attended captain francesco schettino's preliminary hearing. he's accused of causing the costa concordia to capsize off the coast last january and abandoning ship. he's accused of manslaughter. 32 passengers and crew members died in that accident. the report places most of the blame on the captain and part on the ship's owners, american- based caival corporation the parent company. victims' lawyers say that is really who is to blame. >> the standards that were set by carnival in the united states are completely inadequate and that the real changes that need to be made are to be made in these standards in the united states. >> if the judge does order a trial for schettino, it probably won't start before the end of the year. we saw sprinkles earlier and you may have been in a part

of town nassau heavy rain. topper will tell us -- that saw heavy rain. topper will tell us if it's moved out or on the way. >> plus a mackdown of hulk hogan. who is he suing after a sex tape of him with a woman is leaked?

hulk hogan would probably like to drop kick the folks behind a sex tape that he's in. for now he'll have to settle for a courtroom cross chop. today hogan filed a lawsuit

against the florida dee-jay and his ex-wife. he said dee-jay bubba clem and heather clem secretly taped him having sex with heather. hogan filed a separate lawsuit against the internet top of site gawker for publishing clips of -- internet gossip site gawker for publishing clips of the tape. this time michaele salahi and journey man guitarist are engaged and getting married. last year the real housewives of d.c. star was reported missing by her then husband tareq salahi. turns out she was doing fine, had just run off with shawn. tareq salahi has filed for divorce and obviously by now it has gone through. so there you go. sir, just one day of clouds and rain? >> yes. you'll like tomorrow. it's going to be cooler, but i think even you can handle 65

degrees. >> i can handle it. >> let's start with a live look outside, our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. high was 70 works front's pretty much through the immediate -- 72, front's pretty much through the immediate metro area, 64 downtown, winds north, northwest at 6 and pressure rising, another good indication of a frontal passage for you budding meteorologists, 29.72 inches of mercury. here's radar, by and large heaviest activity shifted south of town, still light rain out toward fairfax county, 66 and go up the spur up 270 in montgomery county, just light activity, but by and large, this is the heaviest activity we can find. yes, we have had the rumble of thunder and lightning, pretty heavy rains crossing 95 headed toward 301 crossing the river toward la plata. now we see orange, which is about 3/4-inch per hour, not quite as heavy as what we saw earlier this earning but still a pretty heavy storm just south

of 17. everything pushing off to the east at a pretty good clip. i think everybody will clear out the next hour and a half, temps falling to the west anyway, 59 vienna, gaithersburg, 60 bethesda, 62 college park and even 60 out toward bowie. so we'll dry out pretty quickly tonight. your late night with the dog, no worries. some wet spots for the evening commute, cooler tomorrow but very nice. grab your shades and milder wednesday. we'll be right about average on wednesday which is right about 70. breezy with showers and storms ending early, clearing and mild, 44 to 52, winds becoming northwest 10 to 15. this is not going to usher in the cold air we had friday night. mostly sunny, cool tuesday morning, maybe a light jacket for the kids, 40s and 50s and by afternoon very nice day, mostly sunny and cooler, but perfectly nice, high temps around 65, not that breezy, winds out of the northwest at

10:00. zone forecast, you'll probably struggle, but we'll give you 50 tomorrow in oakland, 58 in cumberland, sunshine from the mountains to the coast, 62 in winchester, maybe 60 in hagerstown, mid-60s, 66 in culpeper, but 64 warrenton, manassas, leesburg, maybe 65 in fairfax. downtown 66, 65 in rockville and also gaithersburg and mid- 60s into southern maryland, just a few parts of the bay andfieldal potomac with a small craft advisory early tuesday. next three days code green, why not? cooler, nice tomorrow, 66, very nice on wednesday, partly cloudy, 71 and then mild on thursday. yes, some clouds come in late, maybe a shower by nightfall, temperatures in the low 70s, pretty good deal. next seven days, friday looks okay right now, partly cloudy, temps around 70, cooler over the weekend at least on saturday, temps back in the mid- 60s but a nice day for terp football. it is homecoming in maryland and also howard, 70, maybe a

shower sunday are but don't change your plans and then 75 monday. >> we will look for tweakage as the week goes along. all right. stop what you're doing and check this out. this daredevil stunt nearly ended in tragedy, a base jumper in norway flung off the side of a cliff when the bar he was preparing to flip off of just broke. here is another angle. oh! one witness said everybody thought he'd died. amazingly he did not. he managed to open his parachutes seconds before hitting the ground. see it way down there? he was just fine. we want to hear what you think. send your e-mail to mcginty's mailbag, the address mailbag@wusa9.com. 9 news now will be right back. 9 news now is sponsored in part by michael and son. if you can't, we can.

in the mailbag tonight through the euphoria of yesterday's pig redskins win we still recall -- big redskins win we still recall the heartbreak of the nationals collapse last friday, but dean says you need to blame sports illustrated. that fine publication is known for putting a curse on its cover subjects. a couple weeks ago they had the nationals and redskins on its cover. i knew the curse was on, no good end could come to the nats or the o's. you wrote this on saturday, didn't you, dean? wish you had it back now, don't you? i figured. it's okay. the si curse is well known, but apparently is only lasts a week which is bad for the nats and o's. rg3 apparently recovered. last week before we were deluged by all this sports business i asked for pictures of your pets in halloween costumes this, after we ran a story saying americans will spend 300 million bucks on them. some of you couldn't resist including bonnie from

springfield. i don't see anything wrong with dressing a pet for halloween. it's not as if the dog will wear the outfit all day. as long as the dogs don't mind, what's the problem? attached are some of my favorite pictures of my chihuahuas, taco and bell. do they look unhappy? they weren't. okay. i'll take your word on that and we got some similar sentiments from amanda in dale city. here's our dog's costume. we thought this costume was perfect for our beagle foxhound named franny. it says bad dog across the back. she actually likes it. oh, she told you that, did she? look, i'll be honest with you. when i was a kid, we had a wonderful shepard lab mix named shane and every christmas day we'd dress him up in a bathrobe or shirt or something and let him run around. it was hilarious to us and he loved us, so he tolerated it, but since then i've always thought if shane could talk he'd say dudes, i've got fur and this bathrobe looks crazy. i can't imagine what he would have said in some kind of uncle

sam outfit, can't imagine what you'll say in mcginty's mailbag, but let's find out as always. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. that is our report. i'll be back here at 11:00 along with anita brikman and topper shutt and tonight we'll have the latest on the race for the white house. don't forget, log on any time you like to www.wusa9.com. see you a bit later. bye bye.

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